Rein in speeding miraa drivers, commissioners ask NTSA

Vehicles transporting miraa from Meru County will not be allowed to offload cargo if involved in road accidents within Kirinyaga and Murang’a counties, a joint security committee has resolved.

Further, the vehicles will be expected to adhere to traffic rules in new sanctions aimed at bringing sanity in miraa transport. Kirinyaga County Commissioner Jim Njoka and his Murang’a counterpart Mohammed Barre announced after traffic data identified miraa transport as a major cause of fatal accidents in the area.

“In September alone, miraa-ferrying vehicles caused eight deaths in Kirinyaga County and six in Murang’a County. The cause was reckless driving, speeding and overlapping where some deaths involved pedestrians who were off the tarmac space,” reads their joint statement to the National Transport Safety Authority (NTSA).

The two have directed police to be vigilant on vehicles ferrying miraa.

Mr Njoka told Business Daily that after accidents, miraa traders use alternative transport, arguing “miraa is perishable and has strict market schedules.”

He said the cargo will only be released after due process. “We will not be recruited into this self-defeating philosophy that miraa is more important than human safety,” said Mr Barre. “Again, miraa transporters are not excluded from complying with traffic laws. This sector has been behaving as if it is a law unto itself.”

The two said their roads will not be turned into “human butcheries” by a sector that has run amok, vowing to subject it to all legal interventions to make it safe for its stakeholders as well as the public.